


Loki on Earth Prologue: Endgame AU

by MarvelFic1984



Series: Loki on Earth [5]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-10
Updated: 2019-05-10
Packaged: 2020-02-29 16:39:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18782095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarvelFic1984/pseuds/MarvelFic1984
Summary: This is how I would have solved the snap if I were in charge which I'm not.  It can be read standing alone or as the introduction to my longer work.  Hope you enjoy it!  Everyone lives.  Except Thanos.  That guy dead.





	Loki on Earth Prologue: Endgame AU

“I used the stones to destroy the stones.”

 

Thanos was resigned in addressing the gathered company of Avengers.  He was already certain that Tony, Steve, Thor, Carol, Bruce, Natasha, Clint, Rocket, and his own daughter Nebula planned to kill him.  He had accepted this fate. He had nothing left now that his destiny had been fulfilled. Eliminating half of all life in the universe with a snap of his fingers.

 

His nonchalance and apparent declaration of victory enraged Thor.  As a god wielding Stormbreaker, he felt personally responsible for his failure to kill Thanos when he had come so close.  Now learning that it would be impossible to undo his failures, Thor felt as though he had nothing left. He gripped the legendary weapon in his hands and prepared to fulfill his oath made over his brother’s body.  Thanos would die for his crimes.

 

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But as he gripped Stormbreaker and his eyes lit up, he flashed back once again to the vision he’d had all those years ago.  The vision that sent him on the quest to beat Thanos to the stones. A quest which he believed he had failed. He saw the cloaked figure in Valhalla.  He saw the stones floating about the universe, representing the fundamental ingredients of existence. The stones that represent creation and had been corrupted for destruction.

 

And he realized who sent him the vision.

 

Thor picked up the empty and inert gauntlet and walked out of Thanos’s small hut.  Thanos, still wounded from using the gauntlet twice, chuckled derisively.

 

“Enjoy your trophy.  It’s a useless husk now.  Much like you and your friends.  A balanced universe needs no heroes.”  Thanos called after him, gloating. He rose to follow and sat down lazily on a simple wooden chair on his front porch.

 

“The dwarves of Nidavellir know better than that.  Because they were warned you were coming.”

 

With a smile, Thor put the glove on the ground and took a step back.  Using the power of Stormbreaker, Thor summoned the bifrost to the glove.  But instead of pulling the glove away, the bifrost energy was absorbed by the glove.

 

“You see,” Thor said as he held open the bifrost over the gauntlet, “my mother, may she rest in Valhalla, was raised by witches.  She could see the future. You didn’t know her of course, but she knew you. When she allowed herself to be slain near the reality stone, she imbued it with a powerful spell that she knew you wouldn’t suspect.”

 

At that moment, the shadow of a billowing cape stepped out from the bifrost.  A touch of gray at the temples and a neatly trimmed beard. 

 

“You should know better than to slay a master of the mystic arts with his own stone Thanos,” said the sorcerer supreme as he rematerialized before the gathered company.  He tsk’d his tongue scoldingly. 

 

“And you should know better,” came the deep voice of a woman from the direction of the gauntlet, “than to slay the one I love in front of me.”  Scarlett Witch stepped out from the bifrost.

 

“Most importantly,” came a rich, silky voice from inside the bifrost, “You should remember that while you are not a god.” Loki paused a moment, always needing to make a dramatic entrance.  

 

“I am.  And so was my mother.”

 

And with the sunshine beating down on them, the three masters of magic encircled the gauntlet, their eyes lit up with the power of the universe behind them, invoking the magic Frigga conferred when she sacrificed her life to the keepers of the aether.

 

All gasped in amazement as faint glimmers of light began to shine in the gauntlet where the stones had been, until at last the stones rematerialized in their places.

 

Still enfeebled from his two uses of the gauntlet, Thanos rose from where he had sat and began to walk towards the reanimated stones and the three sorcerers surrounding it.  He was so focused on the stones that he did not realize Nebula had disassembled his scarecrow to retrieve his favorite weapon, the double ended sword. He continued not to realize it until his head hit the ground and rolled away from his body as it too fell.

 

“We were done with him right?” Rocket asked the surrounding company as he looked at Thanos’s severed head.  “We didn’t have any questions for him about how to use this thing, or.”

 

“Yes,” growled Nebula back at him as she cleaned her blade and admired her weapon.  Each avenger decided that they agreed they had no further use for Thanos.

 

“Don’t do it Strange, I see what’s in his heart.  You can’t trust him.” Scarlet Witch appeared only to be addressing the wizard beside her.

 

“Don’t trust who?” Thor asked.  “Loki? No, absolutely don’t trust him.  Give me the glove, I can do it.” Thor reached out to receive the gauntlet.

 

“Nice to see you too brother.  And no, you can’t.” Loki did not take his eyes off the gauntlet laying on the ground as he spoke, nor did he make a move towards it.  Instead, he stood steadily with his hands clasped behind his back.

 

“Why not?” Thor asked with a smirk.

 

“Because he’s mastered the stones,” Strange said, his eyes darting between Loki and the glove.  “The aether, the tesseract, the mind stone. He’s wielded each.” 

 

“Don’t worry, over the years and through my many travels, I’ve become acquainted with two more.  Your favorite, the time stone, and that little beauty the power stone.” Loki was practically salivating at the site of the completed gauntlet, finally before him.  In fact, he licked his lips with anticipation.

 

“But the soul stone, you cannot use it.” The witch derided.

 

“Ah, but you see,” but Loki did not get to explain.

 

“When Frigga sacrificed herself to the aether and cast her spell, her sacrifice gave Loki access to the Soul Stone.”  Loki nodded solemnly and extended his hand. Strange continued. “Loki, the time stone has shown me your plans. But let me warn you, if you leave with this glove the way you want to, it will not end well for you.  Frigga loved you, but she didn’t trust you any more than your brother does.”

 

Loki laughed.  “That’s because she knew me better than anyone.”  He sighed. “I guess we’ll just have to see how this goes.”  He extended his hand further, expectantly. 

 

Strange lifted the gauntlet and approached the smug trickster begrudgingly.  Loki’s hand extended gracefully as he stood there like a king about to be coronated with fine jewels.  Strange stopped just short of him and looked him in the eye threateningly before sliding the glove over Loki’s long, thin fingers.

 

Although familiar to him after years of study and practice, feeling the power of the stones flow through his fingertips was as intoxicating as ever.  He had never held all six at once before. His eyes lit up as the infinite chasm of the universe appeared to open before him. He almost lost track of himself and the gauntlet as he came under the stones’ power.

 

But there was a reason he had to be the one to use the glove.  He now realized that much of his magical tutelage under Frigga’s expert hand was leading him to this exact moment.  His fascination for the stones, a fascination he had always thought was self-driven, had been nurtured by the one person who had always shown him love.  As he regained his composure and brought his fingertips together, he almost felt her standing behind him, guiding his hand.

 

Snap.

 

The Avengers did not have a chance to investigate whether this strange planet they found themselves on showed signs of reemerging life as Loki let out a triumphant, echoing, frightening laugh.  

 

“You think your pathetic spell on the time stone can force me to return this glove?  I think not. In all my years, this is by far the most beautiful thing I’ve ever held.  And now, none of you can take it from me.” His eyes glowed with the madness of power.

 

“You’re right,” said the sorcerer, “we can’t.  But she will.”

 

Too late Loki realized he had not imagined the spectre of his mother guiding his hand to undo Thanos’s snap using the gauntlet.  The ghostly image of Frigga shimmered behind him. As he watched the image of his departed mother fade, he felt his fingers, previously uninjured despite the power that flowed through them, begin to burn.

 

At first he resisted.  He had suffered great pains at the hands of Thanos.  He knew his mother wouldn’t hurt him. Not permanently anyway.

 

But the burning increased in intensity and traveled from his fingertips up his arm until it felt like his brain too was on fire.  He screamed and threw the glove to the ground as he fell to his knees, grasping his hand in pain.

 

“Yup.  She did know you.”  Thor chuckled, picking up the glove.  “Good work Loki. I’ll be taking these stones to the far corners of the universe.  Well, except for,”

 

Dr. Strange was way ahead of him, opening the eye of Agamotto to receive its occupant.  The time stone obligingly dislodged itself from the glove and returned to its home. 

 

Wanda still felt as though only minutes had passed since she had watched her beloved be slain before her eyes in agony, not once but twice.  As if lost in a dream, she summoned the mind stone to her. Out of the air she conjured a gold band and attached the stone to it like a ring that she placed on her finger, silently resolving to restore the stone to its rightful owner.

 

“Anyone else?” Thor asked around.  “Going once, going twice,” and with that, he and Stormbreaker took off to place the stones for safekeeping.  Frigga’s vision had told him where to put them.

 

“Loki Loki Loki,” Tony and Steve walked over to their old nemesis.  “What are we to do with you now?”

 

“You’re welcome,” Loki said to both of them, looking up.  He had examined his arm. It was entirely uninjured. As usual, his mother’s magic worked on his mind, not his body.  Of all the things she had taught him, getting the better of her was not among them.

 

“We’ll see about that.”  Steve said. “If you’ve really brought back everyone who vanished, we can probably work out some kind of deal for you on Earth.”

 

“You can?  Oh pretty please would you?” Loki derided.  “I would so ever love to go to Midgard with you and do whatever it is you do there.”

 

“I should be ecstatic right now, and you’re ruining it.”  Tony shook his head and turned to walk back towards the ship.  Nebula followed him with a glare at Loki who smiled in return with a cheeky little wave.  “Aren’t you going to go see your sister?” 

 

Nebula spun around and within seconds she had Thanos’s blade at Loki’s throat.  “What do you know about my sister.”

 

“When Thanos destroyed the stone, she and all the others trapped inside it reappeared on Vormir.  You might want to go get her.” 

 

Nebula looked around without moving her weapon.  “Is he lying? I’m not good at telling when he’s lying.”

 

“No I think he’s telling the truth this time.  Your sister is on Vormir. And your other friends I would think are on Titan.” Dr. Strange offered hesitantly.

 

Nebula withdrew the blade and Loki rubbed his newly entact neck.  “Rocket, let’s go.”

 

“Can you take us back to Earth first, there’s people I wanna see.” Clint finally spoke up, not happy to be boarding a ship with Loki but willing to make that sacrifice if it meant seeing his family.  

 

“Yeah, Ranger Rick here is kind of our ride too.” Tony pointed to the raccoon.  “We may be short on seats though.

 

“I don’t actually need one,” Carol said.  “I can take us. Let’s go.” The tesseract had told Loki about this one.  She was as formidable as he’d imagined. He banked that information for future use.  He liked her.

 

“Loki even if you did manage to bring back all the vanished with the glove, there are going to be people on Earth who,” Natasha paused and looked meaningfully at Clint, “aren’t going to be too welcoming.”  

 

Loki finally moved to join everyone else as they walked towards the ship.  “Would you believe I’ve talked my way out of worse?”

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